It is like saying you went to Harvard or MIT. That's neat. You are probably reasonably intelligent. However, even that isn't an automatic and I'll reserve judgement until I've made my own assessment.
It also matters socially. I went to an Ivy League grad school and a no-name undergrad, so I can provide a point of anecdata that people treat you differently.
I suggest you take a walk in the real world.
That is prestige by association. If you can't see it.... well, I just hope it's not because you're in denial.
EDIT: Also, VCs. It's a lot easier to get a VCs attention, or a recruiter's attention, if you say you previously worked at Google. If any of this is news to you, I don't know what else to tell you...
No it doesn't. Just because you see some articles do that doesn't mean all articles do it.[1] Also, keep in mind that the people writing these articles usually understand tech much better than the layman so that's still not evidence of the general public giving a shit about googlers.
The article seems to be less about what some objective truth about good jobs is but more about how people perceive themselves, others and their goals in life.
Surely if you work somewhere like that you're pretty employable and not in the middle or nowhere. Why not just go work elsewhere for a bit while you work out what you really want to do next?
You should have an emergency fund that covers six months of expenses, ideally you never touch this. If you quit without another offer it's safe to prepare for a job hunt lasting up to a year. Six more months for safety is just smart.
Work 6 months for minimum wage in a major city and you'll find what most people consider 'low wages' to be laughable.
Of course, you should do everything your power to have and maintain an emergency fund, but two years of savings is insane. Don't waste two years of life if you are unhappy in your job just because you're afraid of not finding new work. 6 months is a good target to shoot for.
Unless what you're saying is "Only 2 years?"
Unless you meant as a childless single person making 200k/yr. Then yes, it's easy.
Does $200k not seem low for a two-income family? Does paying for childcare not seem strange for a one-income family?
Not really, even in the BA, unless they are both in tech or similar; $200K is nearly double the median household (not individual) income for San Francisco & San Mateo Counties.
I've worked at a couple very high-profile companies in the Valley and have never felt this prestige primarily because I don't hang out with complete douchebags.
If people get all starry-eyed when you announce the company you work for; run in the opposite direction. Also, don't kidd yourself, you and I know both know you're not working on anything that cool. Especially because almost everyone works on a team so responsibility is pretty spread out.
And even if you are working on the very algorithm that determines which ads are shown when, you're still buried in seventeen layers of process and bureaucracy for a change or product that will probably never ship or will take years to market.
The day-to-day is about unglamorous as it gets. People need to realize the big "names" in the Valley are simply large corporations.
Bureaucracy and process often exist, but it varies extremely. Sometimes it can be quite direct.
(I certainly don't think that "working on the very algorithm that determines which ads are shown" is cool, though, as I work on products.)
I'd be lying if there wasn't some reservation or me doubting myself a bit at first when I realized I just wasn't happy there and needed to get out and I'd also be lying if I said some of it wasn't because of the above reaction of family/friends.
> If people get all starry-eyed when you announce the company you work for; run in the opposite direction.
Get over yourself and out of your bubble. American culture constantly pushes the value of prestige and the way of obtaining that being going to good schools and working at popular companies. If you are a person who didn't go to an ivy league or work at Facebook, it's easy to believe that the person who did is better than you in some way. It is more rare to attain that status, so therefor many people both in and outside of the industry look starry-eyed at them.
I don't work at one of the big tech firms and nor do I want to, but I know for a fact most people in my family would think highly of me if I told them I worked at Google, because it is prestigious whether you like it or not. Does that make them douchebags?
I’ve seen this phenomenon in San Francisco quite a bit. That is where the person and their entire social circles become cliques that serve simply to reinforce their ego.
It’s sad and weird to observe first hand.
One of my mates who went to a mid tier public school and he commented he made sure when sending out his cv the fact that he was a old bedfordian was prominent.
And if I had stayed in Birmingham (UK) and my mum's plan to use family connections to get me into King Edwards had come off dam right I would use that - btw this is the school that is always in the top 3 in the rankings.
That’s not prestige exactly, it’s a signal to the Old Boys Network that he can skip the usual process. Some people might describe this as corruption.
- That it's wrong to judge using school etc. when you have no other way of judging. For example, if I give you a choice of a cardiologist from hopkins vs someone from a podunk university you haven't heard of, barring no other information - I can put money on your choice being the hopkins dude:)
- The fact that you are working on crud in google is the same as crud in xyz company: No. At least in a true scotsman way, the good teams I have worked on have always had better crud apps than the worse ones.
- That they are complete douchebags. May be a few are, but that's not exclusive to non-tech. (you might not have meant this though)
IOW your familiarity might have bred some contempt / diluted the glamour. For me, I still am very proud of my history of companies.